Booby Trap

Episode aired Oct 28, 1989
TV-PG
45m

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

3.8K

YOUR RATING

LeVar Burton and Susan Gibney in Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987)

Action Adventure Drama Sci-Fi

The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.The Enterprise triggers an ancient yet effective trap left by an extinct race, with a perfectly preserved derelict ship serving as cheese for Picard.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.4/10

3.8K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Susan Gibney (Dr. Leah Brahms) auditioned for the roles of Counselor Deanna Troi and Lt. Tasha Yar before Marina Sirtis and Denise Crosby were cast respectively. She was later a front runner for Captain Kathryn Janeway and Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager (1995) and the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact (1996) but Kate Mulgrew, Jeri Ryan and Alice Krige were cast in these roles.

Goofs
Geordi says that the Enterprise's warp engines have tens of thousands of light-years on them; however, it has been established throughout TNG, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), and Star Trek: Voyager (1995) that it would take the average Federation starship from the late 24th century more than 10 years at maximum warp to travel 10,000 light years. The U.S.S. Voyager was stranded 75,000 light-years from Federation space, and it was revealed that even if it were possible to maintain maximum warp for the whole time (which it is not) it would take 75 years to return to the Federation. That averages about 10,000 light-years per decade. Intrepid-class starships like Voyager are faster than Galaxy-class starships, with Voyager's maximum sustainable speed being warp factor 9.975 and the Enterprise-D's being warp factor 9.6; so, with the Enterprise-D only being in service for three years as of this episode, there is no way it has more than 10,000 light-years of travel on it. In fact it likely has less than 3,000 light-years on it.

Quotes
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [of the Promellian battle cruiser] It is exactly as they left it, Number One - 'in the bottle'.
[Data and Worf, like Riker earlier, look at him rather blankly]
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: The ship in the bottle... Oh, good Lord, didn't anybody here build ships in bottles when they were boys?
Lieutenant Worf: I did not play with toys.
Lt. Commander Data: I was never a boy.
Chief Miles O'Brien: I did, sir.
Captain Jean-Luc Picard: [pleased] Thank you, Mr. O'Brien.

Connections
Edited into Star Trek: The Next Generation: Genesis (1994)

Soundtracks
Star Trek: The Next Generation Main Title
Composed by Jerry Goldsmith and Alexander Courage

User reviews19

Review

Featured review

7/10

Geordie's faked nerdgasm

Enterprise investigates a distress call from an ancient ship situated in an asteroid field.

This is an enjoyable episode with some massively detailed sci-fi and strong character moments.

The plot is good fun and involves a 'nerdgasm' (literally) for Geordie LaForge as he has to get Enterprise out of a difficult situation using his engineering skills and work with a beautiful holographic projection of Enterprise designer Dr Leah Brahms. I find this to be a good concept, with implausibly high stakes.

Geordie carries the episode well and the character retains a lot of likability following a large amount of screen time. Picard also has some cool moments, particularly towards the end.

I enjoyed the visuals, particularly on board the Promellian cruiser and the flight through the asteroid field.

Patrick Stewart is as great as ever, LeVar Burton has a decent showing and Caryn Johnson cameos well as Guinan.